 And Mike, would you like to say a few words of welcome. Absolutely so I just want to thank folks who are able to join us today I know it's. We have another evening one we tried to match the times based on different family needs and dynamics, but this is really exciting, you know we're, you know now have a designer. I'm a project manager, we have a great building committee thank you Kathy Shane who's on this call who's the chair of the building committee thanks for all your work. And now we get to sort of the, you know from my vantage point as an educated the more interesting part which is around the educational plan. What we're developing what we're designing and then in short order some initial thoughts about, you know, site and all that stuff David we're not going to do those types of things today and I think David will address that. But you know I know for people who have been following the building project, you know, with all due respect to our opium and designers around the call. You know that process is a little feels a little bit like a slog procurement interviews right and this it feels a little divorced from the real reason why we're doing this which has improved the learning experiences for students here in Amherst and so, you know I'm just really excited to be working with the team I'm really excited David Stevens with us to be facilitating this and I'm particularly excited that we have lots of folks on this call to offer feedback at the beginning part of this process which is iterative it'll continue to iterate for many months on in, but really to offer their thoughts and feedback to really guide this process and deeply appreciative of the commitment of the community for their engagement in this so really thank you. And I think at this point I'll turn it over to David to kind of set us off for the next couple hours and what's going to happen. Okay, great. Well, good morning everybody my name is David Steven I'm with new VISTA design in Boston, the educational programmer on the team with denisco design. I think what I have an introductory activity that I've planned as part of the presentation, but I think what I'd like to do first is just have our design team introduce themselves quickly and just say quick hello. We'll start with Donna. Morning everyone, this is Donna to nisco nice to see you all. And Vivian. Hi everyone, my name is Vivian low and I'm with the next go. Good morning everybody. Tim. Hi, morning everybody Tim Cooper. And common. Hi everybody. Con bench with the nisco. And Brian, right are you there. Yes, I'm here. Good morning everybody. Okay, and we also have Margaret would and I don't know if Margaret she said she was going to be going through some, she might drop off because of reception, but she'll be back on with us and she's the opm for the project the others project manager. So with that what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen and jump into things here can everybody see that can I thumbs up if you can see it. All right, great. So, yes, so we are, as Mike said, we're at the beginning of this iterative process and what we call educational visioning. This is what we'd like to do today and we have two and a half hours scheduled we know that some people might need to drop off. We really appreciate you spending time with us today we know it's a very busy it's the work day and there's a lot going on within the school and on the ground right now. So we do really appreciate people being here. What we'd like to do is to review the work to date and gather community feedback as we begin begin this this new process of looking at the Amherst elementary school. And so what I've done is I've created some agenda items to offer person overview and then we'll do some introductions. We'll do some priority goal setting and and we'll look at some of the Amherst elementary learning goals and key programs that that we're considering as we consider this building. We're then going to take a break, we know that when we're doing virtual meetings it's really important to get up and be able to move around and take a bit of a break or check your emails. We'll come back and we'll focus more on architectural the architectural end of things we're going to be talking more about kind of educational focus areas. Join the meeting. And I'm going to ask my co host here from the Niscoe, if as people are are entering if I should see them but just make sure that we're letting people in as they enter. Thank you very much. So we'll get into talking about architectural end of things. And we're going to share what we call design patterns that have been discussed and prioritized within within this process thus far. And, and we'll talk about blue sky ideas and then we'd also we're going to save some time for questions and concerns for district consideration. So we want this to be a really interactive process, both this meeting and the feasibility process in general. And, and we're really as Michael said we're going to be focusing on a high level visioning so we're going to be discussing educational and architectural priorities that are being established for the project. So that we can use them as lenses through which to evaluate options, we know we're going to be through an MSBA feasibility study we have to look at renovation, we have to look at renovation edition, and we have to look at new construction. So this process is really, again, a high level. It doesn't engage it's not about what site we're selecting. It's not about which option in terms of a Fort River K five, or a combined Fort River Wildwood K five. But it's more creating the educational and architectural priorities that are going to be the lenses through which we look at all of those different options. And we're looking at, we're going to be keeping notes from these meetings and other meetings, and all of the presentations we do can be found at the project website which is at this email right here, or at this URL right that you can see here that's the project website so in terms of visioning just big picture. This is a process that the MSBA requires for schools going through its feasibility studies. It really wants to make sure the MSBA wants to make sure that districts are considering kind of future forward ideas about their educational vision, how a building will last for decades to come. How they might design a building that we're that's not going to be obsolete within 10 to 20 years because we need this building to last for for 50 years. And so, the process is sequential. We have educational vision priorities that we'll be discussing will connect them to ideas about architectural design and guiding principles. That ultimately connects to key spaces and adjacencies. And that all connects also to the education plan that the district is creating for this project and has been in the process of creating. So we've already spoken to the educational leadership team in the district. And we're looking at these meetings as kind of creating an educational working group where we get feedback. We'll be talking to faculty as well. This will not be the only opportunity. We have another one of these workshops that will be taking place on the evening of Wednesday, January 26. And I want to point out that, although we're starting this project fresh, we also have a lot of information, especially with regard to the educational priorities that the district has been establishing. And that is through the process that went on for the Amherst Elementary School visioning. In 2015 and 2016 connected to that project, there were visioning group workshops, there were community meetings, and there was a comprehensive set of educational and architectural priorities that was created for all ARPS elementary schools. Those groups included representatives from all three elementary schools within the district. Now, we also in the process, the district has created a draft education plan that incorporated many of those priorities. And I guess one, one thing to just be aware is that there's a lot of sort of connectivity and a lot of focus that these priorities have taken on in terms of across the district. And one thing people, people are there's a lot of alignment in terms of what these learning goals are what the guiding principles need to be educationally. And what the teaching methodologies and structure are for for each of your elementary schools. And also in 2019, TKSP was brought on to vet the needs of the educational program that were established so far and evaluate the existing conditions and options for renovation at the Fort River site. So we're taking that into account as well. And finally, and maybe even most importantly, each of the Amherst Elementary Schools has their own, what we call a school improvement plan. School improvement plans talk about the values of the school and what they're working on in terms of their educational focus areas. And there's an incredible amount of alignment there and we're going to be talking about each of these things and how they might connect to the design of the renovated in the building. So we in this process are looking to further develop this narrative that has been in this process already. And make sure that we're also working with the district to optimize the MSBA space template, and make sure that the priorities that we established through these workshops and the feedback that we get is incorporated into an aligned with the educational plan that's being created. So I also wanted to say to that as we look at whether the building would be a renovation or a renovation addition or new construction, there are certain criteria that we can assume that any renovated or new building will have. And as we move into doing some priority setting in this context here. So we want to make sure that people understand that these are kind of givens in this process so any any renovated or new building. When we talk about renovation we're really talking about if you've ever done a get renovation in your home. It's all new systems it's new windows oftentimes new wall systems, new interior design footprint. And, but the building will be ADA compliant. It will have a building on safe entry and security features. It will have thermal comfort in terms of heating as well as cooling as well as heating. This comes with modern technology and furniture that's part of the MSBA budgeting, and what all classrooms will be well sized because we know they have to be flexible, and they'll all have natural light because we know how important that is. One of the things that any new or renovated building will have is a focus on indoor outdoor connectivity. We're looking at pushing special education approach, while you may have some separate OTPT speech spaces. We have to fully integrate the differentiated approaches to meeting students needs within the context of their classrooms nearby will be focusing on safe drop off and pickup. The build we know sustainability is incredibly important to the district so we'll be looking at that very closely, and there will be an adequate number of distributed bathrooms and gender neutral bathrooms. So those are some of the, the, you know, the things that we know that any renovated or new building will have. So this is an opportunity in this phase, this high level phase to really be aspirational about your thinking, and to really try and envision what you would love for this new building to be able to provide to students so with that, I do. I want to give you an opportunity to, to do some introductions. We have a rather a larger group here. So I think it would be a little bit time consuming to have everybody introduce themselves within the larger context of the group. What we're going to do is we're going to get into some, some breakout rooms. And let me just see we have 27 participants so I'm going to divide us into 10 different breakout rooms and these are going to be random. But in that in within that, that breakout space, we're going to take about five minutes to to just share your name, your role, and your greatest hope for this project. When we come back, we're going to have a chance to share that through an interactive platform called Mentimeter. So you should be receiving right now and invite to go into a smaller group. If you could please just click on that. And within your groups again, share your name, your role within the district, whether it's parent or, or a teacher or administrator, community partner, and what your greatest hope is for this project. Okay, so I'm going to open all these runs right now, you should be receiving a, an invitation. Okay, welcome back. All right. What I'm going to do now is, I'm going to open up this slide here so throughout this, this presentation, or meeting, we would like to have you interact with and give us your thoughts and we're going to be able to see them on screen. This is anonymous. This, this is like a poll, a polling platform called Mentimeter. So, if you go to mentee calm, and then you enter in this code number 7275 44835, you can also use the QR code code here with your phone. You can also use that website as well. So if you open up another browser window, either on your, your laptop or your phone, then that will bring you to this slide right here. You each had an opportunity to share some of your greatest hopes for, for the school project. And we'd like to ask you now to share them here with us. And what we'll start seeing is they'll they'll appear on our screen. And, and I would also just invite people open up for anybody who would like to turn on their to unmute and share their priority to do so. For their greatest hope. Now we're going to be doing a bunch of priority setting coming up in just a few minutes so this is just the beginning of talking about a whole range of priorities, because we know that they're, they're not limited to one. So, are people able to access the screen, are we good. So, if you could enter in what your greatest hope is. So, developing a school building plan that can be embraced by the community, learning from the past but looking to the future, creating a great and better learning environment for students and staff. And making sure that there's robust outreach across the community, an opportunity for a town divided to find healing and common ground through a process of dialogue and being heard. In terms of the building a beautiful integrated building with the landscape right engaging spaces. In terms of community school shooting prevention, we're definitely be thinking about security, both passive and active, broader deeper outreach, genuine input from the entire community, taking that input to land in an option that has widespread support and we know that getting support for this is an incredibly important part of this process. The Crocker Farm will not be forgotten in this process that the community will come together on the plan. And also the Crocker Farm thinking about what the needs of Crocker Farm students and families are. All right. Flexible space for hands on learning inspiring and engaging space for learning and teaching. Great. So I did want to share with you some of the highlights in this again this process that has been ongoing at least in terms of the educational underpins of it, and some of the ideas about how space can best support that. So we're trying to build off of that. So in terms of guiding principles for design and this is from the ed plan that the district has put together. Looking at a place where students, teachers and families truly want to be. And part of that is developing a sense of engagement and excitement. And learning these authentic meaningful and relevant and we know that that's the key part of your educational approach. Also differentiating learning. The idea of building community and within the classroom across grade levels within the school and across the larger embers community, a building that's adaptable and flexible. We're going to evolve for the future. Support learners to engage in deep thinking and new ways of teaching and learning that will be evolving over the coming years and decades, and collaboration and sharing expertise that the building will really allow teachers to build community to share expertise and best practices. So those are some of the guiding principles that have been created. And now we're going to give you an opportunity to share what your priorities are but I wanted to review some of the priorities that have been brought to the for thus far. So we're going to be looking at three different levels of priorities. First educational priorities, then architectural priorities, and then community priorities now. They're all very much connected we know that, but it's helpful sometimes to really kind of focus on them individually when we're going through this process. So in terms of things that have been prioritized by the district and by in within the various contexts of meetings and workshops support for 21st century learning, we know that social justice and diversity programming is incredibly important. Interdisciplinary approaches, equitable access, which is like universal design for learning, dual language program, we know that that program is growing at Fort River. It's important part of this of this program that we're envisioning social emotional learning and restorative practices, how do we create a sense of that connectivity that really supports kids belonging and feeling sense of ownership. Supporting project based in student centered learning, extended learning beyond the classroom so everywhere can become a learning station, maker spaces and areas for hands on programming arts and enrichment and storage with a lot of teachers are very rightly so really concerned about storage so we'll open up now for you all to use the Mentimeter it's the same same code. Sharing what your top educational priorities are now. I'll just say that we're going to be getting to the architectural priorities in the next slide. So if you, for instance are sharing. A presentation to share kind of the physical aspects of this as opposed to the educational so if you're thinking about collaborative learning, we want to talk about collaborative learning not so much collaborative spaces, at least in this particular exercise so we really want to be thinking about what are your educational priorities for for students at Amherst elementary school. And you can submit as many as many priorities as you like. So special education programs are offered at both the combined school and a cracker farm focus on interdisciplinary learning project based equitable and inclusive access, a flexible program coming on this expanded to three classes per grade. And then additional instruction offered to all a building that doesn't feel like a prison, we're very much around buildings that feel non institutional but are also very secure expanded language program, collaboration spaces, arts and instruction. And equity across all schools, including district wide special education language, etc. And we, and we know that that equity is a huge part of this conversation and very much on people's minds. Focus on experiential learning climate change curriculum is facilitated by the building design. Yeah, we'll talk about the building itself as a teacher. And then to passive and active sustainability measures steam science technology engineering art and math so kind of integrated approach to hands on learning and meeting the needs of diverse learners. Great. And again, I would, I would open up for anybody to just turn off their or turn on their mic and share anything that you're particularly excited about. It's always nice to hear people's voices but we will have the opportunity to get into some smaller groups a little bit later in this workshop. All right, so we're going to shift to architectural priorities now and I'll share some of the ones that have been developed thus far, and ask you to, to share yours, which may connect to these. Definitely an inspiring space, a warm space, not institutional. When we talk about universal design for learning, all kinds of learning is supported so we would be quiet spaces as well as noisy interactive spaces. Very flexible, practical and comfortable, being safe at the same time as welcoming kids really feel and teachers and administrators feel a sense of belonging. We want to be thinking about multi use opportunities and flexible space, and the ability to build smaller levels of community and larger connection to the whole space again for all kinds of learning and display spaces posting student work and room to expand on that if that's needed. So we'll ask now for you all to share what your architectural priorities are as you think about this renovated or new school building. Excuse me David. Yes, where would it be. Hi Jennifer show here, where would it be appropriate to share thoughts about priorities concerning green energy and sustainability without the appropriate here in architectural or in community. Yeah, yeah, well both I mean it's all it's all connected, but yes. Allison I'm just seeing your message in the chat right now have you been able to access. Okay great thanks. Okay so outdoor learning spaces we definitely learned a lot about that in the last few years the importance and we've been thinking well before that about how to really maximize use of site and connect learning to the outdoors both formal and informal. Flexible spaces that are part of the community we always think about a community core and spaces that can be locked off blocked off from the rest of the building for after hours and and weekend use we're really looking at buildings as community centers school buildings. Safe entry, greeting and gatekeeping and but but also doing it in a way where there you see you can easily see who's entering the school and control that. Plus there are all sorts of other more active measures that we can take around security. Building that honors the work of teachers and students great green energy and sustainability. That's not outdated by sustainability standards in five to 10 years which is always the challenge because things are evolving so quickly but yes that's that's, we understand that we were looking towards net zero school that is a source of pride. Lots of daylight. We know how how important daylight is actually in terms of a sense of well being an effect student performance. Bright engaging spaces, organic flow, great artwork and color throughout. Measurable objectives for all systems. Okay, yeah. In terms of systems the the whole idea of using the building itself as a teacher we can show you examples of buildings where students can interact with the the passive and active the active measures the systems within the building and monitor energy usage throughout the day, and really make that part of the curriculum. Some proactive spacing options for future viruses. Yeah, so we're definitely thinking about the approach to using every square inch of the building as a teaching and learning space and which which is so much easier to do now that we're every everything is going to be fully wired and we'll have a robust technology infrastructure. That also is very kind of social distance in friendly that approach because it really allows people to spread out through the building. It's easy to maintain and Jim being able to enter the gym for community use. Yeah, and that's true for any of the big ticket spaces like the cafeteria or the media set the library media center, or if you have something like a steam lab, or stem lab, or some classrooms we can we can create areas in the building that can be safely accessed and blocked off from the rest of the school. Daylight at the highest levels of chips and that chips are great for classrooms. Definitely, we oftentimes look at light shelves that kind of like bounce light and diffuse it throughout the classroom and and put the lights on sensors so you barely ever have to Okay, climate resiliency have for the town. Alright, great. One more here in terms of looking at community priorities. The community priorities that have been discussed are around that safe community use and access to especially to those multi use spaces. And I will say that some districts, you know, a cafeteria is going to be a very nice space with a full space and and audio visual, those spaces oftentimes are rented out by the district as a as a resource generating mechanism as well, but also for use by the community. So family and community engagement has been highlighted establishment of really clear goals and community support we've already talked about that we'll be sure we'll talk about it more. We have service providers and providing spaces for them and environment is sustainable building and the building itself as a teacher so this has already been sort of highlighted as priorities, but I'll let you weigh in now with with your community priorities. So community areas that are easily accessible safely accessible after hours. So looking at the school as a emergency shelter site. Definitely something we'll be thinking about summer programs library cafeteria art music spaces, these are all the kinds of spaces that we would that we would make available for after hours use, and we part of that also we're thinking about before school and after programming as well and making sure that we're fully supporting those programs, making carefully about what the existing school site that is not chosen can be best used for and that's definitely connected to sustainability as well. And other other needs that you have within the community. So I think it's really critical of the many other infrastructure budgetary needs of the town, including cracker farm, and really keeping an eye on budget for the project budget conscious spaces for family events and programming large and vibrant library. It's available to families and communities. Yeah, we look at the library media center as a multi purpose space that really accommodates lots of both, both more focused and quiet learning but also collaborative space, building to enable expansion. I think with the elementary school population grows a building that everyone can be proud of, even if it's not their personal perfect great in a model for the community. All right. So I'm going to move on now to one more section and then we're going to take a break. I wanted to share with you some thoughts about what we might call future ready teaching and learning or 21st century teaching and learning. It's really about what that means to you as a district and you within your schools. We know that multiculturalism is an equity are incredibly important to your district and making sure that each student is fully respected and learns to respect others. So that connects to the district in its education plan also created a set of future ready learning goals and and these connect to ideas about empathy and citizenship and ethics right up at the top students developing self awareness being able to see other people's perspectives, curiosity, creativity and risk taking collaboration cultural awareness and expression and effective communication. So this really aligns these very much aligned with just wanted to point out what we call the five C's. And this was created by the partnership for 21st century skills. 20 years ago, and or 22 years ago, and these are higher order thinking skills that lots of schools are thinking about and they're very much part of the dialogue and the lexicon within schools, they're baked into next gen MCAS they're baked into next gen science standards. It's all about looking at being able to apply the curriculum that you're learning to authentic situations and understand how they connect to real world and your life, and about developing confidence in yourself as a learner. And this also aligns with just a general trend towards educational delivery, becoming more student centric and active flexible learning environments where technology is one to one if not more, and collaborative and project based approaches that complement the more approaches that of course still still go on and this all connects to skills for for success in college career work. And these are so that these top 10 skills defined by the World Economic Forum are all versions of those five C's and higher order thinking skills. So, I wanted to focus on some of the, the program elements that have been that have been prioritized by the district and I'm going to go through them quite, quite quickly. I'm going to take this presentation available on my website, along with all the notes from from this conversation and others, but of course so social justice and multiculturalism, right up at the top, and climate justice as connected to that. There are more values and mission, and actually a lot of these really connect to ideas about how space can be organized to help create community and help create a sense of connectivity and belonging. Universal design for learning we're always thinking about how can we create learning environments that are going to support very delivery methods, including hands on more active learning opportunities for movement and opportunities for students to represent and express what they know and are learning in different ways. This connects to the idea of differentiated inquest, I have a, okay, live transcription, sure, I'll enable the live transcription. Sorry, and or thanks for making that request whoever did and I'll make sure in the next, in the next conversation or workshop that we have that it's on. So differentiated instruction has to do with tiered intervention and an approach to making sure that you're meeting all kids where they're at and and doing targeted intervention. This also connects to enrichment opportunities for students. We know that do a language programming started in 2019 with your kindergarten and it's growing each grade we know it's an incredibly popular program within the district and an exciting one, and we want to be talking about how to best support that. Social emotional learning is something very important to the district, connecting to the idea of growth mindset students developing their relationship skills a sense of self awareness, making responsible decisions, and restorative justice practices, which are taking place in each of your schools are very much connected to that. So engaging the family and community in terms of parental involvement, family resources and outreach providing opportunities for families to have access to services in the community, and also leveraging the community the great things that are going on in the Amherst community to make sure that students are connected to them. That connects to the idea of relevant and engaged learning and real world context, applying learning, doing, taking an approach towards authentic assessment. When students are doing more project based work, they're creating products, and, and so performance based assessment is a big part of that. It also has a lot to do with connecting to the community because the community itself becomes the text. So wellness, very important in terms of opportunities for movement, very context for learning age appropriate play opportunities fitness opportunities and connections to the outdoors. I mean, lots of schools, like, like yours, like lots of districts are thinking about how to incorporate this kind of integrated approach. Seem is that science technology engineering arts and math, where art also connects to the humanities and so the multidisciplinary kind of integrated approach, kind of like a humanities approach, or to, to, to learning about things like the design thinking process engineering design problem solving and it's a very engaging thing for students now the MSBA has within its an STE, a science technology engineering space within it, and how we define that will be part of the conversation. And we know, lastly, that you have your integrated arts initiative and this connects to a wider kind of approach to really integrating creative expression and communication into your programming. And the other things that again in your ed plan have been, have been highlighted and as focus areas that are really important to the district and that need to be supported in the school so we haven't been to the slide now, where not that all of these are really important to you, but we're interested for you to rate the following focus areas that are most important to you. And we're going to see kind of a graph take shape here as people respond. And it's always interesting to see what floats to the top here. And again, I'll just open up if anybody would like to share any of their thoughts. And another slide that's coming up right after this about anything that maybe you didn't see so far that is a particular concern for you or interest for you in terms of educational programming. So you'll be able to add that, but I can certainly open up for anybody to share any ideas about things that you are particularly passionate about within and related to the educational focus of the district or areas that you think are important to focus on. So like social justice and multiculturalism, and that kind of integrated project based approach which is connected to stem and steam, or all kind of right up at the top and they're all they're all actually really connected to because many of the stem and projects that I've seen that are most engaging are really connected to social justice issues. Kind of make a comment. Yes, I think we cannot take too much out of these responses this 11 responses out of a district of 1100 students. So these are the covariates of the 11 people that are here to answer, but they're 1100 people. I think something like this should be done district wise and which much more participation. This cannot be taken as a conclusion and these are the values of Amherst because this is only represented 11 parents. Yeah, quite well taken. I mean we're we're we're going to be offering this this conversation again. And we'll be talking to teachers about as well we're we're we're seeing what are the commonalities and people's responses, but that's something that perhaps the district can consider. Mike in terms of making something like this available to the larger district as a some kind of questionnaire that we can put together. Thank you. I would also like to share this is Donna that I think David said at the beginning will be posting this presentation on their website and also allowing people an opportunity to respond as well so for those that might not be able to make it this morning, that they'll have an opportunity to provide their input as well. I think it has to be clear that this is the number of responses is here. It's clear and upfront whenever the information and things it has to be okay this where 14 active participants. Right. I think they have to be upfront because if not the message that you transmit is very different or we had this average and we have these responses but if you have to look at the fine print to find the 14 responses. It's very different is okay we had 14 participants these were their responses. Yeah, and just a very different message. It'll be interesting to see if it shifts when we have more participants. Right, it could be just who's on the call versus other folks with different needs. And we're apropos to that. If people could add any other focus areas and priorities that are important to you that might be missing from from this list, an interactive climate change curriculum. We're doing that safety, promoting equity and community for both modeling will and dual language learners and spaces that overlap all curriculums and connect those students. Outdoor space and farm. So okay, and connected maybe to that climate change curriculum parent students participated in democracy, as opposed to in the economy. Internet safety and creative outdoor spaces. We're going to take a break now it's just about 930 we're going to take a 15 minute break and come back at 945 and dive into a discussion of of spatial attributes. And so, but I'm going to leave this slide up here so if anybody wants to add more to this feel free to do so. Okay, so, and I can also. We can also will be here waiting if anyone has any questions that they'd like to ask we can also use this time to do that. And if not, we will see you back here at at 945. Okay, we're going to make our way back here in the next minute or two and get started again. Okay, we're going to get started again. I'm going to share my screen. And what we're going to talk about now is we're going to. We've talked about some of the educational priorities that have been emerging. And now we're going to talk about some of the design priorities that have been discussed and ask for your feedback on them. And we're going to do this in a number of ways so. So, in terms of what what our design patterns well they're just design approaches that we can think about as we approach the design of a building that will hopefully last for a long time, and provide a flexible and cost effective environment. So we're going to share a bunch of examples of schools that have been designed and built within the last five years, mostly in Massachusetts mostly through the MSBA process. And, and as for your immediate feedback on them we're going to be getting into small groups to discuss them and to actually prioritize them. So what I'm going to share is 20 design approaches or design priorities that have already been the district's education plan as important for the design of this Amherst Elementary School. And it's a lot about sort of defining a common language about what's possible and what's desirable. So, we're going to continue to use mentee to give feedback on these slides as we move through them. And I'm going to share, as I said, 20 different design patterns, and on each slide, you're going to be able to in the lower corner. So just give us your immediate response. A heart if you really love it as you think about the needs of the school community, a thumbs up if you think it's a great idea, thumbs down, if not so much no not important for us, or a question mark as to well you kind of need more information about it. Okay, and then after every seven slides. So often we can do a rating again, but really you're going to have an opportunity to discuss these in your small groups, and to talk about them in some more depth and those will be facilitated by our architectural design team. So, and a lot of these are really, you know, kind of just things that are good, sensible approaches to design. So, starting with welcoming arrival. This includes safe drop off and pick up we really need to think about that whole arrival sequence. But some of the things that go into a welcoming arrival is, is it easy to find where the entry to the building is. Is there a place to get out of implement weather, say the doors are locked but you're waiting to get in. Things like that are the areas outside where parents and students can gather and talk. So I would just encourage people to respond to the slides in the lower right hand corner. If you're so moved. If you if these are things that are important to you or you'd like to see in a renovated or new building. David. I have a question here. Yeah, I'm immediately confused as to whether I'm saying thumbs up or down to the actual image, or whether I'm saying thumbs up or down to the proposition that a welcoming arrival. Yeah, thank you for pointing that out. It's not the image and actually I often have a slide that says it's not it's not the image. It's really the idea. It's a new arrival safe drop off and pick up. We're showing you a couple of examples. This is not to say hey I love that building. I want our new school to look like that building. It's this is, this is an idea that will can be incorporated into any aesthetic into a renovated or a new building and can take many different shapes but just the concept of we have safe drop off and pick up and a welcoming place. Thank you for, for highlighting that Bruce right at the beginning here I think that is important for people to understand. David I have a question, shouldn't be be a given. So I'm asking a question that safe drop off pickup. I take it as a given. Yes, in any school project. Particularly we are in a rural town we are not limited by streets and so on so I'm. I wonder if this even should be asked. Yeah, well, again, good point as well. Many of these are givens but we're just trying to share these ideas with people and and just get you show you what's possible, get people excited about what's possible and what will be your focus area. Yeah, I that's quite well taken. I think some of these things aren't as much givens. So let's go through them and and we'll see where we end up and you'll have an opportunity to discuss these in your in your smaller groups. David, David just real quick and none of these are mutually exclusive right all of these could be equally important to everyone so exactly there, many of them are very connected actually. I mean more what we're trying to do here is just show these are the considerations, these have already been established as priorities for for the job. But we mostly wanted to share them with in this community context, and just give people an opportunity to respond to them. But in your small groups what you're going to be doing is prioritizing the things that are most relevant you think for for this particular context. So reading and gatekeeping. So, so David I have a question shouldn't be in other projects I was involved shouldn't be some some things are non starters. This has to be there. Right. So there's no discussion about those things. And then there are other things that they have discussions like greeting and gatekeeping is a non start the safety is a non started safe drop off should be a non started has to be there. There's not even questions about discussing. Yeah, so I just share my perspective is that I think hopefully folks on the call feel inspired by seeing some of these images and being able to imagine what a school is I know we have a bunch of architects on the call for them maybe this is. This is obvious but for most people like me. We could talk about greeting and gatekeeping and until I actually see what it could look like I only know what I know which is my past experience so you know I think another frame for this part of the workshop could be an opportunity to see some images of greeting gatekeeping I'm just doing that one because up but different design patterns so that it can inform the feedback that we offer the architectural team here. You know, unless you're a licensed architect or study this you may not have examples other than buildings you've been in which is for many people likely limited to the buildings that their children go to, which in our instance is almost never the top end design, because none of our schools really meet that in our district so I think you know my advice to people on the call is to take, you know there's different parts of the activity that you can gather from it and I think in terms of the feedback you can gather from it and I think there's a number of different ways you can take the information in and be able to offer feedback to design team, not just today but over time as well. Thanks Mike so Jennifer. I just wanted to say in case anyone struggled at first as I did that we're clicking on the icon and mentee not not in the zoom. You have to go to the mentee dialog box to do that thank you Jennifer for clarifying that. So yes I mean I think we can look at this as we're trying to share concepts that are approaches that have been suggested for the school, and we want to make sure that people are aware of them and if to the extent that you are particularly excited and we'd like to see what rises to the top in terms of yeah this, this is really something that we want to see in the school. So in terms of greeting and gatekeeping. You know might there be friendly face when you first arrive in this situation at the cabbage school on the right you can see it completely opens up that's unlike some situations in schools where you have to enter into the office. Also, part of this whole function is that when you enter the school do you have a sense of where to go and how to move around. Oftentimes, it's hard to even find the main office in a school. So in this situation of deserve a school on the left, we see the cafeteria and we see a notice board with an LCD panel, right next to the office, lots of transparency there. We have accessible classrooms and spaces and again we just want to show you what these look like so we can see examples with modular furniture that can be easily rearranged for more individual or group work. We see storage. We see saints. We have robust technology on the left hand side at the Jacob school in New Bedford you can see this particular classroom has a moveable wall between that and an adjacent classroom. That's also whiteboard to allow for allow for that kind of team teaching that's important to them. There's also a nook in the classroom, but where students can do more quiet work and get comfortable but they're still easily organized. And here we see what's called a light shelf, where the light is reflected off of the ceiling to diffuse light and give natural light throughout classroom neighborhoods. Now this is one of those things that is not necessarily a given, but it's an approach to getting flexible relationships between classrooms. These could be considered as grade level neighborhoods or grade bands you might have a couple of grades that would be connected. There's more square footage but what we've done is you can see here in this plan at the service school and Newton. There's no, it's a hallway but it's also a usable space as a flexible project based learning space. You can also see that there's quite a lot of transparency into these spaces and between classrooms so that you can send students out. They can work more independently, but you can still closely supervised and monitor them. You can also be able to maximize the use of the square footage in the building in this particular neighborhood, which is a great level neighborhood. You also have a small group room and a pull out space, where intervention and enrichment work can happen or small meeting, or it could be a de-escalation space so it gives you a lot of flexibility. And this is an approach that we see a lot of schools taking to try and build in that flexibility and variety of space. So here, we're concerned about security. These doors and the windows have blinds that come down in the case of a lockdown situation. There are areas of refuge within the classrooms that are shown by floor patterns on the classroom. So as part of their lockdown procedure students go to those areas of refuge. Extended learning environments. This is really about looking at spaces that might otherwise have been a hallway to create extended learning opportunities where small group work can happen. And where, again, you might have transparency so that you can see students and help to monitor them. It helps students build more independence. It also gives the opportunity in a situation where you're doing more kind of station based delivery that some groups can spread out. And it just also is using the square footage of the school in a more effective way. In streetscapes, using color, pattern, graphics to be able to allow people to move through the space in easy ways. This has a lot to do with the idea of universal design where it's very clear how you move through the space where there's a sense of connectivity. It also has to do with making buildings feel non-institutional where there's a sense of place and space. So as you're moving through you might see adults meeting, you might see the steam room, you might see the music room. STEM, STEAM and maker spaces. Some schools have particular STEM programs that are very robust. In the Jacobs Elementary School, there's a garage door that goes right outside to a deck outside that allows learning to happen. There's weather stations, there's planters, but this is part of their program. Students go through their spark lab space twice a week at the Beverly Middle School. All of the classroom neighborhoods have their own hands on project space that they call their maker space for more hands on work and also for integrated delivery if you want to bring two classrooms together. Excuse me, David. There's a comment from Tony that maybe you can address because we as architects love to start talking about the building and these patterns, but we want to relate them all back to the program. So if you could just take a minute. So what is the comment? Sorry, I'll just open up the chat. If you go to the chat, right? Well, hi, Tony. So yeah, so I mean, they are really about design because we're getting into discussions of design and how that connects to the program. We have a pretty clear understanding of the of the district's programs as outlined in the educational plan. And so we're, these definitely connect to how are these programs going to be delivered and what are the spaces that are going to best support them. For instance, a social justice curriculum, or the idea of students as democratic citizens as part of a space really can affect that in terms of how you articulate these small learning communities as connected to the larger whole. Also, thinking about your, your sustainability curriculum and opportunities for hands on and project based learning, these spaces really connect to ideas about, about how that might look in practice. So what we're trying to do is, is connect those educational priorities and directives to ideas about space, because we're going to have to get to those relatively quickly. Does that does that answer your question Tony or would you like to pose any more. Yeah, if I may I understood this visioning workshop to be about the educational program and what we want to see in elementary education in Amherst in the future I didn't realize the plan was already written. And that is not written these are these are puzzle pieces. These are approaches to space. Nothing has been put on paper. These are ideas about you know what resonates with the community and with the school community to support the educational program that you are articulating so it's all an iterative process. But, but we, you know, people like to. I think for some people they need visual kind of connectivity they understand well how would this even, how would these educational programs even be supported by a different kind of building. And that's the other thing we're trying to do and this is show you best practice examples of what the MSBA has supported in the last five years, and get people excited about what's possible in terms of, in terms of how space can be used. So these are not. These are, there's nothing that's been put on paper about any of these. They're, they're just ideas about what's, what are priorities, just as we're talking about educational priorities. We want to articulate architectural priorities. So, I'm going to keep moving on here, because I want to give us time to get into our small groups. So I've got another, another 14 of these or so. So I'm going to go through them relatively quickly so we. Yeah, if I may. Hi, this is a picky hi. And yeah, I think it would be great to kind of go through these quickly because I'm going to speak for myself but I think that this is a feeling that's shared by many is that, as Bruce had said, there's a lot of non negotiables and there's a lot of things that I think we can all agree on and kind of not the, I don't know that that's where we want to be spending our time where there are a lot of issues that are controversial that are not known to a lot of the public that we don't have agreement on that relate specifically to the educational programming so I'm hoping that we really focus on those issues and start to address those here and and in other forums before the educational program is is written is written. Well, yeah, and we were we're trying to get to that at the, at the beginning of the of this conversation but maybe didn't, didn't open enough for enough time for some of those issues to come out. Michael, I'm going to, I'm going to look to you right now to see to ask your opinion about how we might most effectively use the time in this meeting. We really want to honor people's, you know, sort of what they're what's most important to them, and what they're what they're thinking about, we could certainly open up for a conversation about that I can go through these quickly. And just to just to give people a sense of what's what's involved and maybe perhaps instead of getting into those small groups to talk about to talk about these design patterns we could, we could talk about some of the outstanding issues that people are most concerned about and make sure that we have those reported. Yeah, whatever is going to work for the group I mean I think it's hard to know, you know, see other comments coming in to and to see other hands going up. You do this, you know, you do this a lot of communities David so I wanted to refer to you and in some ways, but the best way to gather feedback, but I also see three hands up that I want to let folks weigh in on that. So I, a couple of people are saying they appreciate the design elements. I think what we'll do is, I do do this with a lot of communities. I think, let's move through these images and let's get into our small groups and we can make the small group discussion as much a discussion about what are some of the outstanding educational issues as as as well as what people are most excited about in terms of, in terms of what are some of the current priorities. So, maybe we can, we can do that. Steve you had your hand up. Good. Okay. Great. All right, so I think that we can open up for, you know, we can make that conversation in our small groups, give it a focus that is not just on design. I think Katie had her hand up as well. Yes. Thank you just a quick. Can you all hear me. Yes, just a quick clarifying question. And I'm sorry because I'm in and out today given my own work schedule, but in terms of the educational plan. I miss that portion. So I'm wondering, for example, am I voting for these ideas based on the fact that, you know, like, is this new school housing, the dual language program, right because something like that that information is therefore going to influence how I vote for these design patterns, if that makes sense. Right, right. So Katie, so this has been recorded so you will be able to access the beginning part of that we did talk about the dual language programming as certainly a priority for, for the district and the thought is that this school would house the dual language program within it. And then there are, you know, a lot of other elements in terms of the architectural piece that we that we covered this same we're going to do some version of this same thing maybe it will be modified slightly on the 26. But we'll also be putting all these notes together and making them accessible on the website. So one thing that that may may help may not help. But I think one of the things to think about and this is a really hard thing for people on my line of work it's probably a lot are really hard thing for people on the call is that we're looking for this building to last for 50 years. So I think there are things like the dual language program which David just talked about which is planned to be part of the new building. And also the case that can I tell you what in 2070 our program is going to look like I cannot. And so I think for me, a critical component and this was kind of loosely talked about is, what's the ability to be flexible with the design right so we can we can plan a school for 2026. So what we know in this district is by 2030, there'll probably be some new thoughts and some shifts, because that's what our history is in the Amherst so I don't want to minimize the questions about 2026 but I think just shifting, you know, and this is work I've had to do because how I think occupational hazard perhaps is that we really want to think about the long term as well. And, you know, yes we want to be fabulous the first year and have the programming designed in a way that does that. But we also want to think that this building is going to last a long time. And so, you know, to me the higher order questions are sometimes less about kind of details that are 2026 based and they're much more about 2036 2046 and 2056. And so some of these elements that David is showing for me, help me think through that. That long term vision of a building, and we don't know everything about what the world will be in those years we don't even know the world to be right in 2023 and we're in 2022. But I think having that flexibility and durability we know we're going to have an entrance. You know, I think we're going to want collaborative learning environments, maybe maybe not. And those are the things that that I think really matter as David started the meeting he talked about kind of higher order kind of analysis that we're doing here. And that's not to suggest that Katie's question is not a good one it's critical about the dual language program but I think we have to hold both of those things in order that one we want to sort out exactly what it looks like in 2026. We want to be in a place in 2036 where we look back and say oh my god they didn't think of this and now we can't make our programming work. And so I just would encourage all of us to hold both of those. We need things to work in 2026 and have things figured out we also need it to be flexible and durable for a future that we can't fully predict. Thanks for that Mike. Yeah, we're definitely looking at buildings as performing a lot of different functions than than traditional schools did not a traditional schools were often a collection of classrooms certainly still the basic building block of any school, but they were located in very institutionalized corridors and not much connectivity between them. So we know where we're looking to really spread learning out throughout the school to look at every inch of the school. As a learning teaching and learning station potentially anywhere anytime learning that connects to the idea of fully wired spaces, and it also connects to the idea of students learning more independently and doing more sort of being more proactive as we start that in very early grades. So those are some of the themes that come up here and it really is also connected to making a very practical and cost effective building. So I'm going to keep going with these. And, and then we're going to get into our smaller groups so collaborative environments yes lots of schools are thinking about collaborative environments we can think about how does the school design take place and formal or more informal ways, but also how does the learning get extended beyond the classroom walls in this situation here you can see that there's, there's lots of visual kind of supervision that's going on of these spaces that are now what they did is they took some of the library space, and they put that square footage throughout the building and curated collections of books close to grade levels that could be used by those teachers and students so that's one way that we can think creatively also about about using this square footage within the building. In addition to collaborative environments or another one is the cafeteria MSBA will not fund an auditorium in elementary schools. You could do in either cafeteria or a gymnasium most schools opt for a cafeteria, given the flexibility around scheduling, but this also becomes a really potentially very attractive multi purpose space. We think a lot about about acoustics now having a full stage with lighting and sound and space where multi purpose events can take place. And we also look at the cafeteria as much more than just food service at this point. It's a it's a it's a place where learning can happen when when food service is not happening. So flexible furniture within that environment as well as really important. So the history and storytelling. We can see examples, especially in newer buildings where people communities want to make reference to their older buildings or their legacy, or the history of the community so we can think about how that takes place within the building, but that also has to do with not just things on the walls but things that you're seeing. And so here in the school you can see that the steam room has what we call a man on wall that just opens it directly up to a main circulation area within the school, and it becomes very visible you can open up into that space also for more extended learning display and exhibition is a big part of celebrating student learning. And we want to support 2D and 3D display more informal informal displays. Oftentimes we see these large screen monitors that where you can have ongoing kind of presentations that showcase student work and gathering hubs and presentation spaces oftentimes the library media center is a place where that can happen that's also a place where where professional development can happen within the school, and we want to see that space as highly flexible. And within the MSBA template there's room for breakout and what we call pullover spaces, these could be in close proximity to classrooms they could be in extended areas of the hallway, they could be enclosed or they could not be. But there are areas where that small group work or intervention or enrichment can happen, having them in close proximity to the classrooms allows you to have a build in that variety of spaces that the teachers and students can access. So we'll just quickly let people weigh in here. Okay, collaborative environments right up at the top. Now, interestingly, you have all been living and working in in these open plan spaces that have been really problematic for you. A lot of the qualities of the spaces that I'm sharing right now have an ability to be open, but and may have connectivity and transparency but they also can be closed off because because acoustics are so important in terms of conversation. So, or in terms of being able to focus. And so, so a lot of the more open environments that were that we're showing it's important to understand that they can all be closed off and they have floor to wall floor to ceiling walls. All right, last set here, innovation hub this connects to the idea of of of being able to co locate spaces that are might create that community core. So here at the born elementary school. We see that the art room, the innovation studio or stem area, the learning commons which is their library media Commons and an outdoor classroom and the music room are all co located. So as to be able to create an innovation hub that can also be accessible to the community. So it's just one way that we think about making these amenities also centrally located so that if you have teaching neighborhoods. We're really trying to minimize the amount of travel in the school so oftentimes we're trying to really centrally locate these core amenities so that they then students from classrooms that are around sort of the perimeter of these core services don't have to go far to get there. And they also go a long way to creating a sense of connected community media center learning commons is really again, often looked at as the hub of the school, we want to make sure that there are areas for for quiet work as well as for more interactive collaborative work. This also might be where you have your stem lab or steam studio or or breakout rooms as well to give more flexibility to that space. The idea of distributed resources. This is one of the high tech high network schools in San Diego you can see all of these green areas here in this plan our offices or meeting rooms. And so as students travel through this school the adults are spread throughout. So there's a set of adult eyes that are that are on you on students at all times which actually gives them a lot of autonomy they don't need passes to go to the bathroom. There is a strong sense of knowing and being known that students have but this is really again this is one context of how it might look but it's the idea of putting adults in close proximity to the students and the, the populations that they're working with. Outdoor connections. Again, we're this is one of those givens we're certainly going to be looking at maximizing your outdoor spaces and use of them age appropriate play areas. Outdoor classrooms with connectivity internet connectivity as well as some form of shelter from the elements so if it's raining outside you can still be out there. Also thinking about engaged outdoor play age appropriate we know particularly for the lower grades we want to have immediate access for the early childhood to outdoor environments and sustainability which we know is a key priority here in terms of your net zero approach, and these measures can be active and pass it, and we can fully integrate them also into the design of the building in such a way that students and teachers can monitor the energy consumed within a building. And, or we can be talking about recycling programs in this in this photo on the left hand side to see that the systems of the building have been color coded, and so that students can sort of understand what what these systems are doing. So this is our last set and then we're going to jump into our small groups. So outdoor connections and sustainability right at the top which makes a lot of sense given our conversation thus far. All right. So, in your small groups, we're going to we're actually we're going to allow 30 minutes within your group. We have a member of the design team that will be helping to take notes and facilitate the conversation. Our thought was to, you have a handout and I'm going to actually I'm going to put it into the chat right now. There's a handout that has all of the different, all of the different design patterns that I just went through. And the thought was that in our small groups, we were going to access that handout and hold on. There we go. I just put it in the second. I'm going to send it to the whole group. Yeah, Donna you have your hand raised. I do David thank you. I think what what we were just listening to what I think it's Tony or some others that would like to spend a little more time talking about the actual educational goals for for the district that perhaps we can spend a little less time in the small group and then have a larger conversation a little more time at the end. So, so we can listen to those as well. Yeah, I was, I was thinking we would spend time in the small groups talking about that but if it's valuable to spend time in the larger group, perhaps what we could do is right now spend time doing that and then get into our smaller groups will see where that conversation goes Micah see you, not in your head so does that make sense, and we don't have to do those smaller groups if it's more helpful to have a larger group conversation, we can do that. And I will be taking notes as people are talking we're also recording this but but I'll be sure to take notes and incorporate that I did. I don't know if I mentioned that the very beginning that all of these. The findings and the feedback from from the workshops that we're doing are going to be put together in a consolidated set of notes with the highlights, and they'll be on the website as well. Yeah I just I think David just to respond to doing it either in small group or with the whole group I think with the whole group. We have Mike and some other educators on here that we thought some some of us who might be facilitating the small groups wouldn't be able to respond to so that makes a lot of sense. Great, thank you. Yeah, and I saw Mike raising it. Not in a sense so I think we should open up for that conversation, and then just see where it goes and if we, if we want to get into small groups we can or we can spend the rest of the time, talking about these considerations. I did have at the, at the, the last 15 minutes. I had planned on a, you know, a slide with what are the considerations and larger questions that people have so I think that might be what what we're opening up for now, around the educational program and the project itself. Kathy, you have your hand up. I just, I'm not disagreeing with where the direction we're going but I would very much as to bring back to building committee if people with the 20 pictures and options. If you have a way, David of asking us to go back and look at the whole set, you know, after the meeting, if we're not going to do it in a small group. Okay, Kathy that that's fine. I can certainly. I think Debbie Westmoreland is going to be our point of contact. We had her email here for any ongoing questions I can certainly we can provide her email as well as my email and people upon looking at that set can get back to us and give us any feedback on it, and you could potentially create your own, your own set of priority listings for that. Does that make sense. Just because I actually found it useful when we were talking about priorities of thinking how to implement influence space you either create that space or you don't create that space. So I was bouncing back and forth in my mind between the educational program and the space and so I found it very useful. I'm not, I'm not an architect so I'm just thinking away, the kids might move through the school building so you know in their experience and teachers experience so that it's all I wanted to is capture if we're not going to be doing that during this session, figure out a way of capturing people's thoughts. That's it. Yeah, absolutely Kathy and I would like to say the educational program that we are submitting to MSBA does require us to address a lot of the space relationships and what's important to the communities so when they start looking at the layouts and the design of the building that it does clearly take into consideration all of these components and so for MSBA, it isn't just about the individual educational components, it really is how the educational program will shape the building design and layout as well so it has a dual role. So they're both very, these are both very connected the educational priorities feed directly into then what are the architectural approaches that are going to ensure that we honor those as well as the guiding principles that have been created for the really provide the lenses through which we want to look at all of these architectural options and approaches. So I see some handrails what Jennifer do you want to do your first step on my screen so. Thanks Donna. So I guess my right off the bat my input is that for at least half of these 20 elements. My feeling is like the photos are wonderful. Those kids look happy, but I have no idea if if if this will work for teachers for educators and so I think it's critical to get input from educators as to whether this type of space will work for them. I don't and I see some teachers in the room so that's great but I don't think that like we as a group, or should be deciding what the layout of the building should be without that critical input from teachers so I just I'm assuming that there's some targeted discussion with educators about all of these elements so that we don't sort of dictate a layout that then doesn't work for our educators. Sure Jennifer that will definitely happen, and it has happened in various forums because in in the 2015 2016 visioning that was going on there were there was 21 hours of workshops with largely a group of educators and community representatives. And they began prioritizing these as connected to the program, and then the educational program that has been developed in connection to the all each of this the elementary school improvement plans. Connects those two ideas about about the kind of spaces that are needed and already outlined some of those desired adjacencies but we'll definitely be checking in with the faculty around that. Typically, in this process, we engage in in workshops that incorporate a lot of educators along with the community members because everybody is spread so thin now give them the situation with on the crime. We thought that this would be a better approach to just open up for whenever people are available but we're going to find times when the faculty can can give their input directly. Yes, Tony. Thank you. So just for context I'm the parent of a sixth grader and a third grader at Wildwood. I'm not an educator. So I don't know that side of things. But I did send through a bunch of questions I had through to the superintendent and Ben Harrington from the school committee. I'm not sure if they're related to the educational program and what gets written into it but one that I just wanted to bring up now is currently there are three specialized district district wide specialized programs. And I'm not sure if they've been evaluated if they, you know, if the people that work in those and the families that that are have children in those programs if they work. I'm not sure if they should be combined or redesigned in any way and if they are to remain as they are right now. Will they both be offered at Crocker Farm and at the new school and and that would play into the space summary for the MSBA how many classrooms are needed for those programs at both at both schools. Currently they're only offered at Fort River so children from the other two districts or the other two schools that that attend them are bused away from their home district. So personally I think it should be a priority for the district that there is no busing for for special services going forward and so that would mean the educational program in there would be describing those programs as being offered at both Crocker Farm and this consolidated school and that, like I said it has a direct impact on the space needed. And then the other thing I just wanted to bring up now is Caminantes. So I know there's a bunch of families that tried to get into it but there wasn't enough space primarily families that have English as their as their spoken language at home. Is there demand. Has there been an exploration of whether there is sufficient demand to open a third classroom. Is that possible with the 5050 model I don't know. I know now there's two classrooms. One, one is a Spanish teacher and one is an English teacher. Would it work if we were expanded to three classes per grade. So just just some questions that I think feed directly into the educational program and would directly impact the design. Thank you. So I'll start with the latter one first I'll go in reverse order so for coming on days. I don't see why it would. So we're presupposing what I'm hearing in your comment is presupposing that the 575 option occurs I think at the beginning we talked about MSBA coming up with a new space or enrollment study just for Fort River but I just is that an accurate reflection Tony. I just want to make sure I was responding appropriately. So for coming on days, there's space in a 575 students school where there would be that flexibility I think some of our challenges would be quite honestly staffing. You know it is it's been a challenge and as we're scaling up, you know each grade level, it is Katie who's on this call has done incredible amounts of work to work on the staffing component and curriculum so it's something I could commit to I don't think it because I'm not I'm not sure we could find qualified staff at that scale. Hard to know what 2026 looks like but that would be a challenge Katie could certainly feel free to jump in if she'd like but I think that's how we'd have to do I think the other math part of it is that if we had three of those and that would be six coming on days classes. Because of the way as you describe it could spend half the day and so that I think would leave no space for monolingual classes unless we change the model to a one way model which we have intentionally not gone to. So I think there's also some logistical challenges of leaving space for families who offer their children not to be part of the program it might exhaust the seats. That way so I think there's some real challenges but I do think there's demand, but not necessarily demand in a way that we might be able to offer, but I don't think the space would be the dictate that that's a more over time we could see if the staffing and the demand would support on the special ed program piece I'm glad you raised that so philosophically and I think I've been on record multiple times is saying this that I agree with you I don't think busing you know should be a part of it. I think our challenge because we can't this came up with one of our programs, you know, not much, not much pre coven about splitting the program and what we heard directly from staff is there's incredible benefit, particularly building blocks and I'll see which have more than one core teacher to having combined programs in terms of covering for one another in terms of developing the needs over six or seven years of the experience and they strongly advocated against splitting their program. And I think to Jennifer Jennifer's point a minute ago, it might seem great administratively for me, frankly it would. But I also want to be respectful of teachers who express viewpoints for instance, things I heard where, you know, well there's two ILC classrooms, some of that could be based on age, right because of the age span is so great at the central, but some of it also is based on needs. There can be students in those programs who really are better supported not being in the same class with one another, just like any other kid and any other space where sometimes those. It's a little more acute because the numbers are smaller. So at this time, you know the initial thought is to maintain the programs within the kind of existing models that we have with combined programs more than one teacher, based on the feedback we've heard from and they feel strongly it's a better supports the students they have. We've had these conversations over the ILC and the building blocks program the aims program is a little more unique because there's only one teacher so it's not so splittable. So unless there was an infusion of resources where we could add programming at Crocker Farm, which I don't imagine there will be that infusion of resources. I'm really loath to go against what I'm hearing directly from the educators working in the specialized programs themselves so it's a complex issue because I don't I'm uncomfortable the busing to Tony I'm right there with you but I also understand that folks who are working with these populations see great benefit of having more than one section in the same building and so that that's the balancing act we have and I tend to side with the educators working as closely with the kids. When it's making that level of decision, but I super appreciate both questions and they're both critical so thank you Tony. And I don't know what your first name is. Yes, hi. So I have a question because many of all the spaces I think I was trying to separate the ones that are a non starter that they should be there and then the ones that they that are open. Again, I think it has to do with the educational programming because most of the things most parents will say yes, let's go ahead but we won't have the budget and we won't have the reimbursement from the MSBA for many of these spaces right. So we're going to have to make a balance. So based on the educational program like the teachers want to gather in spaces or a make a space yes we would like to as a parent maybe a friend my kid I would like to make a space but doesn't fit with education and programming. Collaborative or the neighborhood classrooms doesn't mean that it has to have the small break of spaces nearby or don't they have those two things combined together is it neighborhood and small rooms next to it or it could be non neighborhood and small rooms. Yes, those things are combined, you could I mean maybe small breakout rooms are part of the neighborhood they could be one of the pieces of the neighborhood, a neighborhood could simply be adjacent classrooms. But usually we like to put in sort of some extended learning areas and some smaller group meetings and bathrooms as well that are close by, and just in terms of test test test because let's see if those things I'm thinking. Yes, this is fashionable now but maybe it's not so much in the future so my concern sometimes of those things is flexibility. Yeah, yeah. The open classroom was fashionable in the 70s and we learned that there were a lot of problems with it. I think that the spaces have to be thought as a flexible spaces and not only for these and they can be reconfigured. Sure, and adapted in the future in an easy way. Yeah, well, yes, definitely we're looking at all of the classrooms as being sort of interchangeable, except if they have some special maybe if you have a stem or a steam classroom that has a few more bells and whistles but for the these classrooms are really interchangeable as Mike said, we don't know what it's going to look like 10 years from now 20 years from now so we need to allow these spaces to take different take on different iterations but what I would say is that it's not kind of a trade off between many of the spaces that you saw all of the spaces that you saw were supported by the MSBA. Those are all MSBA jobs or most of them were some one or two of them weren't. Yeah, but they cost per square foot that's up right for the budget. Yes, yes and no because what what really what we're trying to do is get the biggest bang for the buck so if you look at hallways for instance, they take up 30% of the square footage in a in a school and they're not used except for between periods or many schools and they use them very uncomfortably for getting having kids go out into the hallway and do work and they're lying on the floor and they're, you know, they're trying to make the best of that situation so, but if so, what the MSBA is concerned with they look at your enrollment, and they spit out a very thoughtful architectural program based on square footage and it's actually quite generous in terms of square footage in terms of what they will support. They want larger classrooms, because they know that classrooms aren't just stand up and deliver. They're also kids breaking out into smaller groups, they want to support these extended learning areas if they're making good use of the space but they want to see that within the ed plan they want language about well how will you use these spaces, and they definitely are supporting these smaller breakout rooms because they're part of the special education square footage, and the Department of Secondary Education is going to be more aware that although you might have some occupational OTPT and speech, you know in one separate area of the building that you also are supporting intervention and push in delivery. So they want that flexibility so what we're really trying to do is look at this whole collection of spaces where where the sum is greater than its parts where you have like a real synergy between larger spaces smaller spaces classrooms. But it's not about more square footage, usually. I mean, so that being said, when you look at so in a elementary school program, the classrooms can range from 850 to 950 square feet within the MSBA template. So there have been some schools that have said, well, we really think it's important to have these extended learning environments so in addition to the hallway space. We're going to add, we're going to say our classrooms are 900 square feet or we're going to take 50 square feet and we're going to add them to that set of classroom neighbor to that neighborhood that space. Does that make sense, but it's all it's all about staying within the square footage. And that's, that's, and making the case for how you want to use that space and that that will, and in that situation the MSBA will support that we have two more hands up. And I'll start with. And I don't know the first name. Sorry, it's Maria. Thank you. So, I want to talk about a couple of things specifically one is the comment on facing language programming. I think it's going to be important that we do some specific outreach to the kids that kids and families and staff who are currently in both the bilingual and the monolingual programs to ask them how things are working what is working what is not working with respect to space what are the challenges, things that will inform what we put in our educational program and what and what we do with design. The other thing is the district wide special education and my thank you for your comments that that's the first that I had heard about there having been any discussion with staff about centralized versus decentralized I was on the enrollment working group that looked at this. And we had recommended that there be a more robust analysis of going decentralized or centralized. And I think it's very important that we hear from families to find out what's working for them, what they would like to see. And to talk about the centralization decentralization whether you have these programs in all the schools, or just in one school. I don't believe that that's happened. It's also important to find out from the families, whether the programs as they are currently configured are serving those families adequately or do things about the programs themselves have to be changed this is a perfect opportunity to look at that. The other thing to consider is that currently Crocker farm has about 30% of the families, the elementary school families in town. It's going to have more. It's going to be 40%. So there are going to be a lot more families, districted to Crocker farm than are currently and I don't know how widespread that knowledge is. But that's going to be important to share as we talk about this building project. It's also going to come into play when we talk about programs. If they are only cited at a new consolidated school. It's going to be important for people to know that that's going to represent less people than they originally thought. There are going to be Wildwood and Crocker and sorry Fort River families currently who are going to be going to Crocker instead. And, and I think that larger population that's going to be a Crocker is going to make a difference in terms of how we do some of these programs that are cited in a specific location. The other thing I think we need to add to our list of important items is pandemic resiliency. We learned that we all learned that the whole world learned that the hard way about how we need to bring that into our planning and we made adjustments to our current buildings to allow to get kids back in school. And Mike, I also appreciated your comments that we need to think about this for 50 years, or even more down the line hopefully. But I think that cuts both ways as we've talked about right in the 60s and 70s, we could have had a vision in group and they would have said open classroom design. This is what we want to see. You know, the things that we're thinking now we have to have some hubris and understand that what we think is not necessarily what's going to be good, what's going to be considered to be good 50 years down the line. That's all I've got for now. Thank you. Do you want to respond to that at all? No, I just, you know, I appreciate the comments that were shared and I think, you know, on the special ed issue I think I already spoke to that and I think maybe I'll just say in general I think one of our challenges and I'm so glad that folks are here because they can maybe give this meeting to others and talk about the next one is everyone's capacity is diminished right now if I'm going to be really blunt and honest, right, is that this is a particularly challenging time if this was happening four months ago. Perhaps we would be a little lighter, a little more nimble and I'm not only speaking for myself but I'm seeking for the larger community as well so I think we do really have challenges I've gotten some feedback some critical feedback on the emails that we've sent out, granted most of those are pandemic related but not all but just, you know, I think the balancing act here in terms of engagement is educators, you know, families communities are under extreme stress at the moment and so I think that's, not to say we don't want to engage but it also is I think representative of the moment in time that we have so I think, you know, we did talk about some of the special ed pieces. A couple years ago at school committee, you know they were talking about special ed programs. So there was discussion explicitly on that topic it's a different set of families to Maria's point right that changes over time and I also want to be realistic about the expectations I know Donna to the point that Jennifer raised earlier. Donna and David and I spoke the other day about doing another session explicitly for educators right after the school day so just, you know, trying to create as many opportunities for feedback as we can get and knowing that at this point people who are incredibly invested in this process may not have the capacity to invest their limited time and energy into something beyond what they're doing. During their days and so I think that balancing act everyone's experiencing a very different pandemic I want to be really realistic some people do have that capacity, but I think in general I just wanted to make that comment because I think we do receive feedback but it's, you know, perhaps not as widespread as, as we might expect if we weren't in the pandemic but we are in a pandemic. It's the reality so I just want to balance all of those things so you know I'm so appreciative we still have 27 people on the call, two and half hours or two and a quarter hours later because that that I think speaks to the commitment. But people aren't on the call to the comments earlier I think we are trying to figure out ways whether sharing the recordings asking for feedback and other ways I think it is critical to offer as many ways that people can be involved and not just right now but it's an iterative process throughout, because it's, I mean I speak for myself it waxes and wanes, right, people's availability and capacity to participate so I just want to share an appreciation for for everyone who's been able to participate for this length of time, given everything that's going on. Sorry David that was long winded but I just, you know, some of the comments made me think of that. And I want to get to Bruce I just want to say one thing though Marie. It's true, you know, if we've been doing this in the 70s we would have been talking about open plan is the next greatest thing. And we saw that that was very problematic. I will say that, because I didn't really mention my background at the beginning of the call, but I started out as an architect but then I worked as a high school teacher and assistant principal for 15 years. I've been working nationally, internationally and a lot of Massachusetts to do this kind of what's the bridge between forward thinking ideas about about educational approaches and the kind of buildings that will support them that aren't trendy, that are going to really involve over time so, and the mass school building authority there is no other entity in the United States that is doing what the mass school building authority is. They are have a very thoughtful approach to their program, they're doing research on what, and doing post occupancy studies on what's being used and how are these, you know, instead of learning spaces being used and are they, how are they necessary, things like that. So I do think that we have a set of architects, and Dennis does one of them that are competing for these projects but that are really open to kind of thinking about how do we do this right. So I do think that there's lots of examples we have about about, I think, not doing something that's trendy. We learned a lot in the open school process that we need to. We have connected environments which is really desirable in a lot of ways, then we have to make sure that acoustically they work for people. And we have to be thinking about way finding throughout the building and accessibility beyond just handicapped access. So all of those things. I think, you know, we're trying to be as thoughtful as we can about them. And, and I think there's a lot of also examples that we can look at so I know that one of the things that some of the district folks are doing is looking at those examples, and experiencing them, what do they feel like inside so I think that's an important part of it as well. Yeah, David, if I if I could just thank you back I, you know, probably a lot of folks and their careers always look back, not Monday morning quarter backing but lessons learned, and I think we've all taken away. A lot of lessons learned, not only what happened in the 60s and 70s, but also looking back at indoor environmental quality that's critically important right we've all learned so much about what works well for student achievement. The pandemic has taken us to look at things totally differently than we would have been 2019, but, but as architects recognizing this building hopefully will last beyond 50 years our goal is 75 years obviously a little longer but how, as we design things the spaces can change easily as the program changes and and that's going to be really important as we design whether it's a partition, for example, two classrooms you put a partition up well don't put piping and plumbing and technology on that wall because that wall may want to come from a point in time in the future or whatever so we are always thinking about flexibility in the future as well so what will continue those conversations as we start laying out the building and the design and and making sure that there's some kind of forward thinking as we address this. Thanks, Donna and Bruce sorry to keep you waiting for so long. Hi, it's actually Mary Sarah his wife didn't see I didn't see your name there Mary. Yeah, it wasn't there. We've been talking about flexibility in terms of the pandemic I think the other big issue right now is climate change. And I think one of the things that we're understanding is that we need a citizenry that is connected to the environment and to nature. So, for me one of the educational goals and the goals of the building is to have that a big part of the educational process, which might include. You talk a little bit about easy access to the outside, but I would really go for almost a melding of those two things and and also outdoor landscapes that really promote educational places for gardens for the children. I have to say I taught at the common school and their ability to have children learn science, math, art, everything connected with the natural environment is very exciting to the children, number one. Number two, it makes for a very warm humane kind of classroom because there's drawings of wildflowers the kids have you know gotten. And also I would like to see within the classrooms opportunities for natural living organisms. I'm looking at all those buildings and they're very institutional to me that I that you showed I don't see plant material or you know so anyway just just creating opportunities for children really to interact with the natural environment and have their education. Have that be part of their educational experience. Great. Thank you very much Mary. Yeah, definitely. You know, there's only so many of the design patterns that we can share, but, but certainly, you know, having most of the schools we're working with are very concerned with those issues of connecting to the doors, maximizing the use of their site, both in terms of connecting to science curriculum and opportunities for gardening programs or a greenhouse if that's appropriate. And as well as just easy access to kind of formal and informal kind of play areas and getting kids outside and moving. So but what you're talking about in terms of biofilia bringing plant material in is something it's it's it's something that we know is creates a really great aesthetic and we can certainly be looking at that. I feel that a lot of these things actually aren't that costly I think it's mostly thinking of them ahead of time so that they wouldn't add a lot to the budget, but they would add a lot to the educational experience. Yeah, thank you. Okay, Steve I see your hand up. Yeah, so since this is open Mike, I just want to do plus one to marry and I actually put this in as a written comment and I didn't see the peer on the screen but I think maybe it was Mary's outdoor spaces but I think that the outdoors connection to the nature is critical so the pandemic is actually one reason, but also just the way students learn at this level right so I mean just look at the origins of kindergarten, right so it has to do a lot with connection to to nature, but also look at the elementary schools in Amherst they all are named after natural features Crocker farm for River Wildwood. So that alone is a clue as to what's critical here but So a comment might be so although all the photos that we saw were of the insides of buildings. And so maybe that's one, you know maybe that's the next step here is looking at the programming as it relates to the outdoors and maybe I don't know when the landscape architects are coming on board or if they're on, you know how they're being integrated in this but I think not thinking of the landscape as something that will be done around the shell of the building but thinking of it as critical to the building itself I think is something that can make this a spectacular spectacular building. Sure, sure. No, thank you and Steve, thank you right I think actually we had a couple more slides that did respond to the outdoors but probably not not as in depth as as you're speaking to but our landscape architects on board already, and it's an integral part he is an integral part of our design team, and we work very closely with him as we look at all of the exterior features, all of the landscaping etc we also try to incorporate maybe even stormwater as part of an educational program and how that could play in our landscaping also we like to look at holistically as relates to our climate and make sure that we plant the appropriate plantings and trees and shrubs so that their drought resistant or they they meet the environment in which they are so that the maintenance and durability of them are the same but we will work with a Mike and his team from a science perspective, making sure that if it's a big backyard program or science programs how we can incorporate those features into the outdoors. Can I follow up on Donna's comment. And I apologize. Just a heads up that we're we're heading into 11 o'clock so yeah and that's my exit. I apologize I have an 11 o'clock meeting that I need to get to but I did want to add and I think she's on the call which is we are incredibly fortunate in this district to have a key six science coordinator who also spearheads are gardening for ease and she's a longtime educator. And so I'm not going to put Jen on the spot to be able to have to speak to that but when we get to the topics around outdoor learning and some of the comments that were just made. She's going to be an incredible resource to help us think about that. And she's incredible resource for our elementary educators on science and use of outdoor spaces in general, even the ones that we currently have set up ourselves because it's not part of the building that we're in and of our building so I just we're very well situated for that and just folks may not know about Jennifer's role but she is a rock star and we're really fortunate to have her on board. Great. And, and, again, I'm sorry. I think it related to the outdoor I think it can have a big impact on the design and I think that's right now all the classrooms right now as in why would they have direct access to the outside. So if it's, if you want to minimize I think what I've been hearing from everybody is a lot of connections to the outside but if you go into a multi story building then you're going to have started to have more barriers for the kids to have access to the outside. Right. So, I hope that this is taken into account in the design. Right now the kids, there's open, there's a door and they could go outside directly. Whereas if you have to go one step of flight of stairs or two flights of stairs, it puts a barrier to the time it might take to go and integrate to the outside. The classroom into the outside so I don't know how that can be solved but. Yes, well it's certainly going to be something that we're considering I mean there's lots of things to weigh out and one of the issues is sustainability as well because if we go with a newer building, or substantially renovated building, having a one story building is not the most sustainable approach in terms of the envelope of the building and systems within it so. We're weighing all that stuff out but definitely we want to be thinking about maximizing that access to the outdoors. We are at 11 o'clock here or one minute past I want to thank everybody for for really sticking with us for the last two and a half hours, and thanks for your feedback. I hope that in terms of shifting the focus of this we got to address some more of your issues and we'll definitely be thinking. As we move forward on how to best, you know, for structure these workshops those to be able to get at the issues that are most important for people. We're definitely going to be looking into how to reach out more to the larger community. We may not have time to take part in one of these meetings and to teachers as well within the confines of their their schedule. We'll have these posted we're recording it will have them posted, and as well as the presentation so folks can take time to comment on what what is important to them. Thank you everyone. We look forward to continuing the conversation. Thank you. I was under the impression that this meeting was going to 1130 that it was three hours and it's fine that we're ending early but will the evening meeting also be two and a half not three hours. So six to eight 30. We decided to limit it to two and a half hours Jennifer because because of the online format, we realized that three hours is a lot, especially in the evening to ask the people. Okay, thank you. Thank you everyone.